The present invention relates to a wheel attachment aid apparatus in an automobile assembly line, which is installed by the side of the automobile assembly line and which can relieve a mounting operation in the case of attaching a wheel to a car body.
The operation of attaching a wheel to a car body conveyed along an automobile assembly line is such that an operator takes the supplied wheel out of a tyre lifter and sets it on the car body, and that he/she locks the wheel tentatively with nuts and thereafter tightens the nuts by the use of a nut runner. Therefore, it has such drawbacks that a heavy burden is imposed on the operator and that the degradation of a job efficiency is incurred.
As a countermeasure, there has been proposed a wheel attachment apparatus in an assembly line wherein, as disclosed in the official gazette of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 24679/1986, a bearing member is disposed so as to reciprocate in a direction orthogonal to the moving direction of a vehicle while being guided by a guide member which is suspended below a traveling truck adapted to travel along the assembly line, through a pole capable of extending/shortening and swiveling, a supporting member is disposed which is held turnable in the circumferential direction of a wheel by a holding member rockably journaled in the bearing member and on which a plurality of nut runners are set, and a clamp device is disposed for fixing the wheel to the supporting member, thereby to facilitate the operation of attaching the wheel.
With the wheel attachment apparatus in the prior art, the nut runners may be actuated after previously fixing and positioning the wheel with the clamp device so as to hold the mounting holes of the wheel and the sockets of the nut runners in opposition and then bringing the mounting holes of the wheel and the hub bolts of a hub into agreement. Accordingly, enhancement in the job efficiency is attained. However, the wheel needs to be fixed to the clamp device beforehand so that the mounting holes of the wheel may oppose to the sockets of the nut runners, and an accessory device such as wheel positioning device therefor is required. Besides, the nut runners are unitarily mounted. Therefore, the whole apparatus becomes large-sized and complicated to occupy a large installation space and to incur a rise in the cost of equipment. Another drawback is that the apparatus is difficult of installation in an existing assembly line.